Patrick Grant Will Make You Believe in Wide Leg Pants Again

Patrick Grant’s first inkling that his evangelism for wide-leg trousers might be catching on when strangers on the street stopped giving him side-eye for wearing generously cut pants.

“There’s a ‘you look weird’ look,” he recalls backstage after his Fall 2017 runway show held on Saturday during London Fashion Week Men’s. But, around six months ago on a visit to New York, Grant noticed a change in how pedestrians reacted to his particular get-ups. “I wore a grey-brown, completely unconstructed [suit],” he recalls. “It was big. It was drapey. And the look was, ‘Actually that looks quite cool.’”

Waning shade from Manhattanites aside, one glace at the collections shown on recent mens’ runways confirms that other designers—from Ralph Lauren to Gucci’s Alessandro Michele—have climbed on board the loose-fit bandwagon. The pendulum, that for so long favored Hedi Slimane-style extra-skinny bottoms, appears to have finally gained enough momentum to officially declare it swinging away from tight fits that might endanger your sperm count in favor of more freedom below your waist.

For Grant, making relaxed trousers an E. Tautz trademark season after season was less about being first to a trend, and more about questioning an adherence to traditional dressing simply for tradition’s sake.

“Initially, I enjoyed that neat, tucked up, corseted, tailored look,” he says. “And then, it just started to feel old and a bit marginalized and just a bit mean. I spent 10 years tucked into a suit, and now we’re free to move.”

Freedom is a key element of Grant’s fashion philosophy; when it comes to incorporating this wider silhouette into an existing wardrobe, Grant believes that, to paraphrase a cool babysitter, the only rule is that there are no rules. “When you’re wearing tailored clothes, you have to follow formulas,” he explains. “The colors have to be in, the tie knot has to be small. All those rules apply. But when things loosen up, you can just relax.”

Grant says wide trousers are an easy starting point that you can use to rethink your notion of what a suit can be. Take, for instance, how the E. Tautz Fall 2017 collection was styled on the runway with loose-fitting pants. Nearly every look included suiting elements, but there was nary a necktie in sight. A charcoal grey, fine-check wool jacket and corresponding bottoms were paired with a collarless, beige shirt. A plaid button-up was worn half-undone beneath a double-breasted suit, with a slouchy T-shirt as a base layer. “You can wear things tucked in, you can wear them out,” Grant says. Tweed has never been more chill.

“A suit is just two bits that match,” he adds. “There’s nothing inherently formal about that.”

Grant and E. Tautz also make a compelling case for shaking off the usual grey, blue, and black that so many guys gravitate toward, offering roomy, pleated pants in mustard and a rich brown. There is wide-leg denim, too, and it’s so handsomely crafted that there’s no need to be concerned that someone will mistake it for a leftover pair of JNCOs.

If the effect of oversized trousers is casual in an ‘80s kind of way—Phil Collins on the runway show’s playlist and some models’ giant eyeglasses drove that reference home—let it be a reminder that the cyclical nature of fashion trends provides room for experimentation. You can have the freedom to dress as you like, knowing that if you stick with a look long enough, eventually even random passersby will come around to understanding it.

“People who love clothes get bored of dressing the same way all the time,” Grant concludes. “It takes 10, 15 years, and then all of the sudden, we’ll swing back the other way again.”